TROISDORF/STARNBERG, May 25, 2022

Top seed Andrej Martin fell in the opening round of the Saturn Oil Open in Troisdorf, Germany. The World No. 130 from Slovakia was knocked out by Evgeny Donskoy in his first match at the €45,730 ATP Challenger Tour clay-court event.

The 32-year-old Russian capitalized on five of his 10 break-point chances to seal a 6-2, 7-5 victory on Wednesday afternoon. Donskoy, a 12-time winner on the ATP Challenger Tour, will next play German qualifier Lucas Gerch. The World No. 368 defeated Kimmer Coppejans from Belgium 6-2, 6-0 in 77 minutes.

Another Russian even booked his spot in the quarterfinal, as No. 3 seed Roman Safiullin fought past Julian Lenz from Germany 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 in his second-round match. The 24-year-old Podolsk native withstood four aces and broke his rival’s serve six times to prevail after almost three hours of play. Up next for Safiullin will be Portuguese Frederico Ferreira Silva, who beat Russian qualifier Andrey Chepelev 6-2, 7-5 in one hour and 37 minutes.

Also in the bottom half of the draw, Jelle Sels from the Netherlands defeated Alexander Ritschard from Switzerland 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 30 minutes and will next play Zizou Bergs from Belgium, who battled past Swiss teenager and No. 6 seed Dominic Stricker 6-1, 3-6, 6-1. The encounter lasted one hour and 37 minutes.